Is Lawn Care Estimating Software the Best Way to Bid (and Win) Jobs? | Landscape Bidding

Estimates are a constant stream of busy work.

At best, you're up to your neck in busy work. At worst, you are ten feet below the surface ... drowning.

But what if there was a better way?

What if there was a lawn care estimating software that would make your Quoting Process 535% faster ... and better at winning bids?

Let's prove it:

For many lawn care and landsacpe companies, the estimate process looks like this:

• an off-hand quote from the owner or...
• a complex process where you schedule a house call, drive out, measure the property, and drag yourself back to the office to write the quote.

The first should terrify you. You might as well buy a used truck without looking at it. "Guestimates" are blind hope, a hip shot.

The second is worse because it wastes your time. Time you could use to make another sale. Or two. Or three.

...thankfully, there is a way to mix the speed of "quoting by phone" and the precision of measuring in-person.

Estimates for lawn care and landscape should be:

• Efficient
• Professional
• And most of all, INSTANT

The faster you send a professional quote to a client, the more likely they are to buy from you.

If the client has to wait on you, they will call other lawn care providers. On average, lawn care owners lose hundreds of sales a year just by making clients wait.

The Fastest Way to Create Professional Estimates

Do you create estimates like this:

• draw them out by hand
• type each estimate from scratch into an email
• copy and paste from a Word document template

...if you do, you are wasting your own time, and losing clients.

A proper estimate software can save you a ton of time AND improve your reputation. You will be regarded as "the professional lawn care company," which helps you grab higher-quality (i.e. "more profitable") clients.

In most estimating softwares, like Service Autopilot, you can use templates to create quality, professional-looking estimate documents. These documents make use of Personalization Fields, which automatically fill in information about your clients or your business.

This way, when Mrs. Smith opens up her quote, it can say her name right at the top.

You can tweak the layout of these documents, including service prices, so that everything is automatically calculated. That means you only have to do the work once, and not "every time you need to send out a new quote."

This will save you hours every week. How many hours? Well, let's take a look... 

How to Estimate at Peak Efficiency

• Do you ever have to call the lead back?
• Do you have to schedule house calls for every quote?

If you said "Yes" to either of these questions, you are too slow for the digital age.

Today, this is the most efficient way to estimate:

• Stay in your chair. For most lawn maintenance jobs, you don't need to go to the property anymore.
• Use Smart Maps to check for obstacles. Note anything that will make change your time on the job (trees, pools, trampolines, etc.)
• Use Smart Maps to measure properties without an "in-person visit." It's time to sell your measuring wheel to an antique collector. Now, you can get the square footage of the property from your air-conditioned office.

So far...

1. The phone rang
2. The lead gave their address
3. And you measured the property while they waited.

Now you want to give the client a full quote, which includes 20+ services and packages. But you can't keep them on hold while you build this estimate because this will take at least 20 minutes... right?

Wrong. 

Service Autopilot's Estimate Templates can store any combination of services and packages that you quote regularly. They're ready at a moment's notice.

If your services are set up to calculate using rate matrices, estimate creation is even faster. A rate matrix is a table, based on square footage (or another measure) that calculates the client's rate based on that measure.

In the example below, 0 to 5 bushes cost $20 to trim.

Your estimate process just went from:

• speaking with your lead - 2 min
• scheduling - 2 min
• driving (round trip) - 15 min
• measuring - 15 min
• putting the full quote together - 20 min
• drafting and sending the email - 5 min
• total: 59 minutes

to:

• speaking with your lead - 2 min
• measuring online - 5 min
• creating the full estimate in a few clicks - 2 min
• tweaking and sending the email - 2 min
• total: 11 minutes

That saves you 45+ minutes per estimate.

Or, in other words, you just made your estimate process more than 535% faster.

And you didn't even have to get out of your chair. Efficiency is a beautiful thing.

No More "Phone Tag" - Lawn Care Estimating Software will Save You from Headaches

Alright, you emailed an estimate, you've still got your future client on the phone. They are going to review the proposal and give you a callback.

"Actually," you say, "You can accept the estimate online through the link I just sent you."

You read that right.

Your future client can review the estimate and accept it online, without any extra work from you.

Say goodbye to "phone tag."

Immediacy is the key to increased sales. When a person wants something, even lawn and landscape services, they want it NOW.

Not in an hour. Not next Wednesday.

They want to make hurry up and make the decision ... so they don't have to think about it anymore.

Your competitors waste time with on-site quotes. Service Autopilot's estimating software will make you better than them, faster than them, and will earn you more sales.

On top of that, you'll spend less per sale. You'll have more time and more money to improve other pieces of your business.

It's a win all day long.

Make your lawn and landscape estimates efficient, professional, and instant with dedicated estimating software.  Stop wasting time and energy, and take a tour of Service Autopilot today.

Related: What should you look for in your Lawn Care Scheduling Software?